Lycos set to destroy spammers...
 

Sorry if you guys already know about this, figured it's something that might be valuable knowledge to a few of you guys out there.

The short version is that Lycos is getting people to download a screensaver that then tries to sign up through known spamming websites increasing the bandwidth of the spam sites therefore increasing COSTS to the spammers. :321GFY

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4051553.stm

Screensaver tackles spam websites
Net users are getting the chance to fight back against spam websites
Internet portal Lycos has made a screensaver that endlessly requests data from sites that sell the goods and services mentioned in spam e-mail.

Lycos hopes it will make the monthly bandwidth bills of spammers soar by keeping their servers running flat out.

The net firm estimates that if enough people sign up and download the tool, spammers could end up paying to send out terabytes of data.

Cost curve

"We've never really solved the big problem of spam which is that its so damn cheap and easy to do," said Malte Pollmann, spokesman for Lycos Europe.

"In the past we have built up the spam filtering systems for our users," he said, "but now we are going to go one step further."


Before now users have never had the chance to be a bit more offensive
Malte Pollmann, Lycos

"We've found a way to make it much higher cost for spammers by putting a load on their servers."
By getting thousands of people to download and use the screensaver, Lycos hopes to get spamming websites constantly running at almost full capacity.

Mr Pollmann said there was no intention to stop the spam websites working by subjecting them with too much data to cope with.

He said the screensaver had been carefully written to ensure that the amount of traffic it generated from each user did not overload the web.

"Every single user will contribute three to four megabytes per day," he said, "about one MP3 file."

But, he said, if enough people sign up spamming websites could be force to pay for gigabytes of traffic every single day.

Lycos did not want to use e-mail to fight back, said Mr Pollmann.

"That would be fighting one bad thing with another bad thing," he said.

Slow down

The sites being targeted are those mentioned in spam e-mail messages and which sell the goods and services on offer.


Typically these sites are different to those that used to send out spam e-mail and they typically only get a few thousand visitors per day.
The list of sites that the screensaver will target is taken from real-time blacklists generated by organisations such as Spamcop. To limit the chance of mistakes being made, Lycos is using people to ensure that the sites are selling spam goods.

As these sites rarely use advertising to offset hosting costs, the burden of high-bandwidth bills could make spam too expensive, said Mr Pollmann.

Sites will also slow down under the weight of data requests. Early results show that response times of some sites have deteriorated by up to 85%.

Users do not have to be registered users of Lycos to download and use the screensaver.

While working, the screensaver shows the websites that are being bothered with requests for data.

The screensaver is due to be launched across Europe on 1 December and before now has only been trialled in Sweden.

Despite the soft launch, Mr Pollmann said that the screensaver had been downloaded more than 20,000 times in the last four days.

"There's a huge user demand to not only filter spam day-by-day but to do something more," he said "Before now users have never had the chance to be a bit more offensive."

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/h...gy/4051553.stm

funky

wouldnt that be sponsors and not spammers?

lol how can they make spammers cost more bandwidth?

If you're hosting yourself then your bandwidth will increase..

otherwise it will affect the sponsors, you're right..

but I know there are some guys/gals out there who host their own sites even though they're mailing for another sponsor

AND.. if they make it unviable for sponsors to pay for hosting.. then that will inevitably affect the spammers themselves.. :(

they can't get away with this in the US. They'd be sued for sure. So who cares let em weed out some of the competition :)

:mad:

Lycos who?

You think they have enough market any nore to really effect much?

BRILLIANT. DIE FUCKERS

if the spammers sue and win a judgement against Lycos they can force them to pay the bandwidth bill they ran up.
backfire!!!!
:1orglaugh

damn those f*ckers

this maybe the biggest threat to the industry

Fun for those whos machine gets hacked by spammers.

and if the spammers redirect the traffic to Lycos site + take the proxies they use to DDoS Lycos, Lycos will go fuck themselve ;)

idiot.

Uh. How do you redirect the traffic coming from many thousands of IPs without redirecting all traffic?


You don't.

HAHAH :thumbsup :thumbsup

or just mail super anti's straight to lycos site

well mr. why don't you post your tip?

sounds like a DOS attack

:1orglaugh :1orglaugh


that's exactly what I was thinking...


who the fuck uses lycos anymore?



this sounds more like a publicity stunt than anything real

haha they cant do shit..all they will do is end up getting their shit hacked and screwed up

Get a BP host flooded see how quick the 56k connection slow down

How do they decide which emails they're going to basically hotlink on a massive level? If someone is obeying the Can Spam rules, how do they have the right to attempt to disrupt their legal business? Isn't this basically the equivalent of a DOS attack?

no spammers here :)

that's got go be illegal.

this will never work.

i guess you will be out of business.
LOSER

I don't think they will succed, tho I'd like it.

It's not Lycos - It's Terra Lycos. They're big in Spain. They still host a LOT of free sites. And they do have the traffic.

However, this isn't really anything more than a DDOS attack.

It's marketing genuis though - the more people that they get to load their screensaver, the more people carry their toolbar.

Spyware opportunity!

what would be awesome is the spammers hosting their site on lycos

and lycos will end up DOSing their own servers

They may get sued for that. Unless of course, they have a provision in the TOS of the 'screensaver' where the person downloading 'consents' to such actions.

However, INTENT may still be an issue. Since the INTENT of the downloader/user is to cause damage to the 'spam' site, this may fall out of the purview of any legit TOS.

Exactly what I was thinking...

wow i see lycos are going to get ddos'd, what a stupid idea....and anyway spammers wouldnt spam if people didnt buy. there is money in it and thats why it continues, these pieces of crap dont have a right to make that decision for the 50 million people who buy through email. die lycos